Daily Prompt: Far from Home

Which is not that far by some standards, only about a quarter of the way to the other side of the world, just into the tropics. My mum, by contrast, is from Australia and now lives here in England and the only place further is New Zealand which is about the exact opposite side of the earth. She moved here in her early teens, travelling by boat so that was a long way in time as well, several weeks, and it must have seemed so far from home. Some people on the other had never leave their village or have never been outside of a particular valley, which is a different type of life experience.

In total I have been to Tenerife four times. I just keep wanting to go back there. The photo above is from my first visit in about 1994. I went there with my girlfriend of the time, seeking sun to get a tan. We had a great time. The most memorable part being driving across the island, across the volcano, mount Teide. Amazing deserted landscapes and the highest I have even been.

The second time I went alone in 1999 and I had a good time. The most memorable being the Barranco del Infierno with it’s dry barren gorge with an oasis and a small miraculous seeming waterfall at the end.

The next two times I went with a diferent ex-girlfriend and she took this photo. The most memorable part maybe being when she decided our room wasn’t good enough (I thought it was really nice). I was dead against complaining but she wanted an upgrade. We took our suitcases back to reception where she made a big fuss, telling them she was disabled and couldn’t mange the stairs and she wanted a pool view. She made such a fuss that we did get a pool view but I felt awkward about the whole thing and felt dishonest. It might have been pretty comical for an onlooker but definitely not fun for the staff on reception.

We also got talked in to buying two expensive holidays kind of like a timeshare. I wasn’t taken in by their talk but she really wanted it. One of those was my last visit (so far) to Tenerife and the apartment was nice with a jacuzzi and nice size rooms but I’m not sure it was worth what we paid. The jacuzzi was really just a big noisy bath and not very handy if you just wanted to wash the sweat off quickly. Most memorable would be her huge hangover on the day we hired a car to go up the mountain. I love it up there above the clouds but someone made ill by alcohol might not like it that much and she mostly slept in the passenger seat.

I’ve had some really good times there and I would love to go with my current muse some time in the future for my fifth visit.